Korpul
Overview Korpul is a dry yet temperate garden world orbiting a large (for its type) red dwarf star. It has a roughly equal amount of water and land space. The latter is divided into three major continents with vast plains. The biosphere consists of dextro-amino-acid-based life and a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere. The dominant wildlife are herds of large to gigantic beasts that travel the plains similar to earth's sauropods or elephants. Early explorations noted a comparatively lack of biodiversity amongst the land animal species which is attributed to the homogenous landscapes, the lack of truly distinct climate zones and the comparatively low energy output of Korpul's sun. The northern landscapes are tundras, with large forests at their borders. The equatorial plains show more diversity from rocky deserts with sparse growth to lush swaps and floodplains where rivers pave their way through the landscape. Those show the most biodiversity as the environment allows for more variant species to evolve. History The first garden world discovered after the cluster was opened. Initial surveys found large amounts of valuable metal ores. The Turian Hierarchy declined a bid for colonization based on distance and location within the Terminus Systems, yet a group around the Primarch Desonar and the defunct volus-held Interstellar Credit and Commerce Bank (ICCB) funded and rallied the first wave of turian-driven immigration into the Red Rift. This group drafted the plans to establish an manufacturing base within the Terminus to counteract similar plans by the Batarian Hegemony. First spaceports and cities were established at the coastal regions of the mediterranean plains, then mines were set up and factories were built. At first it seemed that the plan would work and the colony would prosper. 20 years after foundation, however, the ICCB found itself in a liquidity crisis when several key companies on Korpul struggled to maintain their numbers. Having invested too much into the project, the ICCB asked Primarch Desonar for help. Desonar agreed to cover up since he was holding sizeable shares of the project and would be ruined the moment the colony bubble bust. 5 years later the situation became untenable, yet Desonar still defended the Korpul project and its sister project on Lartus to the shareholders and the public, calling it a success of long distance colonizing and cooperation between the public and private sector. When the first companies on Korpul and Lartus filed for insolvency, the backlash took out the ICCB which was promptly delisted from the CSX. While the C-Sector saw a dent in its economic growth and ICCB was dismantled, the turian public focussed on Primarch Desonar, leading to his public downfall. The "Desonar scandal" left the people of Korpul on their own. The economy that was geared towards interstellar export to hubs like Omega had to reinvent itself to adjust to local needs and necessities. Many factories that were able to maintain operations shifted their focus from high-end hardware to rugged consumer and industrial goods so the colony could continue to function. The social backlash was more complicated. The turian population felt betrayed by the promises of Primarch Desonar and with the Hierarchy showing no intent to send economic relief to the people caught up in the mess, a strong independent mindset evolved. The people organized around either the companies or communities and started to establish independent legislations and law enforcement. Two years into the crisis, the provisional administration of Korpul began its service and started expanding the local infrastructure, putting many unemployed back to work building roads and maglev train connections across the plains between cities that had previously been supplied via space travel and were largely on their own. These difficult times saw a resurgence of spiritual beliefs within the general population and many turned to subsistence farming and taming animals just to keep on going. The provisional government did its best to improve but without outside investments it would take a generation to set up an autonomous infrastructure. Until then, trade by cross-plane caravan was the norm not the odd exception. A century later the infrastructure of Korpul was established and now consisted on several maglev trains connecting the major cities at the coastal regions with mining cities in the continent's interior. With every connection made, the living standarts at both ends started to rise and soon reached the pre-collapse niveau. This attracted interstellar money, factories were rebuilt and started to export to the Terminus Systems once again. Incorporating the previous experiences of hardship, the goods sold were soon valued for their quality and reliability carving out a niche at the Omega markets among the population with more liquidity than a vorcha on Blood Pack salary. A week-long holiday celebrates the arrival and leave of a trade caravan on Korpul and still today a "plainswalker" describes the specific breed of people who live with unrest in their hearts and freedom in their mind. This of course strongly romanticized the hard lives the original plainswalker endured. Economy Today Korpul maintains an export-based economy and imports much of its raw materials since the mines have long been depleted. There are several asteroid mining project on their way and the oceans are surveyed for underwater mining to alleviate the shortage. Still, the economy is going strong and the water-rich areas are slowly being populated for agricultural purposes, although tight government regulations prevent large-scale farming to preserve the local wildlife. There are 6 major cities with space ports that act as trading hubs for their continents while the general population has been expanded into the plains after the Desonar Scandal. Small villages dot the plains and still rely on farming and selling the excess to the cities to get by, although access to modern creature comforts (extranet communication, running water, schools, law enforcement) is widely available, paved roads between them are not. Social and Political issues The people of Korpul are independently minded with an emphasis on self-reliance as a result of the Desonar Scandal. This is strongest among the rural communities that also show a strong prevalence of spiritual beliefs. The city-based populations are closer to what most people consider to be the Hierarchy way of thinking and spats between city-turians and plains-turians are often cause for political upheaval in the planet's government. Still there has never been armed conflict over this issue and the continued absence of direct Hierarchy interest will ensure it will stay this way. There are no direct loyalist/separatist camps since most Korpul turians consider themselves Hierarchy by heritage. Individual factions may have a strong pro- or anti-Hierarchy stance, but neither are dominant currents. The word to describe the common Korpulian's feelings towards the hierarchy is "indifference". Still, a growing problem Korpul faces is the influx of hard-line anti-Hierarchy factions from C-Space that use the independent colony as a means to supply and organize terror cells from afar. The provisional government tries to counter-act the influx of unwanted elements with tighter immigration laws and working with the Hierarchy intelligence to detain wanted subjects. The reason is two-fold. One, being known for harbouring terrorists is bad business policy and two, nobody wants to draw the Hierarchy's attention over becoming a security risk. Religion In times of crisis people flok to religion for support and thus it is no surprise that the imported Hierarchy variant of spiritualism remains strong amongst the Korpul population. Contrary to variants like the Sundowners who attribute spirits to the physical world, the Korpul flavor sticks to abstract philosophical concepts (war, peace, luck and so on) and holding one ancestors sacrosanct. Military/Law Enforcement Outside of the cities, the plains are patrolled by the so-called Korpul Rangers. Originally an initiative founded by veterans of the turian navy, it evolved into a judicial and investigative organization wherein groups of rangers would travel between the villages settling disputes, investigating crimes, and combating bandits or smugglers. They were an unofficial authority before the provisional government incorporated them as their top-level investigation agency and much of the of general policing was taken over by the Korpul Public Defense militia and its criminal police arm. Today the Rangers investigate high-profile crimes, provide SWAT units and are Korpul's internal intelligence agency. Being a ranger is considered a high honor. Category:Locations